Tag: culture clash

In 2014, I had the pleasure of speaking on two panels at VCON with today’s guest. Ron S. Friedman is a Canadian SF/F author but his roots began in Israel. Have you ever been in an argument with someone to the point where you realize that you and your counterpart simply have different, unbridgeable point of views? As if each of you grew up in a parallel universe, and that no amount of data and supportive evidence can change the other person’s mind? If you did, don’t be alarmed. That’s perfectly normal for how a modern Homo-Sapiens’ brain works. Last…

Our first guest blogger, Aurora Award winning author Sally McBride, considers the question of cultural conflict from a unique perspective–a Canadian liberal atheist married to an American conservative believer. On paper, my husband and I should never have met, let alone stayed married. He’s a Texan redneck and proud of it, therefore comes preloaded with a God-fearing, gun-toting, conservative attitude. I’m a Toronto native from an artsy, liberal background, and if that isn’t bad enough (Socialized medicine! The metric system!), I’m also an atheist. Did I mention my hubby went to seminary school and planned to become a priest? Nope?…

Diversity. Multiculturalism. Inclusion. In the context of human relations, these words evoke warm feelings. Who wouldn’t want a world where people of different races, cultures, and beliefs can co-exist peacefully, each enriching the other? And yet you have only to open your computer, turn on the news, or read the newspaper to see how far from this ideal we are. Cultural conflicts have incited hatred and violence since the beginning of recorded history—and undoubtedly since the beginning of the human race. In my own lifetime, growing up in a quiet suburb in a supposedly peace-loving nation, I have witnessed the…